5,000 metres, Men

The defending champion was Norway’s Hjalmar Andersen, who had won three gold medals at Oslo in 1952, and was back to compete in the 5,000 and 10,000. He had won every international championship in which he competed from 1950-52, then briefly retired only to return in 1954. He had won the 5 and 10K at the 1954 European Championships, but he was no longer the dominant skater he had been. The other most recent major titles at the distance had been won by Norwegian Knut Johannesen at the 1955 Worlds, Sweden’s Sigge Ericsson at the 1955 Europeans, and Soviet skater Oleg Goncharenko at the 1954 Worlds, who had only recently won an international meet in Davos. But also highly considered was another Soviet, Boris Shilkov, who had won the 1954 European and Worlds all-around, and had set the world record of 7:45.6 in 1955 at Medeo, bettering the previous record by 18 seconds.

Shilkov was the first favorite to start, in the fourth pair, and the mark he had to shoot at was 8:00.2 set up by the Netherlands’ Wim de Graaff. Shilkov started quickly, with by far the fastest split at 1,000 m among the contenders, and he finished just as strongly, crossing the line in 7:48.7, the second fastest time ever. The gold medal was his and nobody would approach his time, as he won by a full eight seconds. Goncharenko was next up among the contenders, but finished the sixth pair in 7:57.5, which was eventually good enough for the bronze medal. The silver went to Ericsson, skating in the eighth pair, who posted 7:56.7. But everybody held their breath as the 11th pair started, with Hjalmar Andersen. But he finished in 8:06.5 and would place only 11th.